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Bliss Bubbles from the Beyond - 6th Week of the Katha Upanishads Throughout the study of the Katha Upanishads, we’ve been receiving the teachings through Yama, the Lord of Death, via the story of his encounter with the young boy Nachiketa. Nachiketa and ourselves have essentially (and bravely!) chosen to make Death our  Guru , as we boldly begin to delve into it’s deep mysteries. However along this journey, we are also starting to recognise the wonderful paradox that Yama – Death himself,  truly and   totally believes in our capacity for LIFE .  In our complete entitlement to freedom.  It turns out that Yama is actually 100% life-affirming, utterly pro-life and absolutely life  LOVING . This week, Yama brings us deeper into the untouchable – the unshakeable place within us all that even Death cannot reach. For this, he gives us the gift of one word. “I will give you the word all scriptures glorify, ...

The fifth week of the Katha Upanishads….an invitation to come and sit near to the Guru within yourself. Throughout the journey, we’ve been downloading the wisdom of Yama, Lord of Death, through the story of the brave boy Nachiketa. We start off this week with a note on wisdom, and how we can deal with the sometimes overwhelming supply of it all! We’re always learning, and especially when we are choosing to enquire deeper we can be presented with so many awesome insights. This could potentially lead us to think we need to suddenly become completely enlightened with all the wisdom we have received, and perhaps never make a ‘mistake’ again. We can think learning is a 1-2-3 step process…learn the wisdom, and BAM that’s it - you’re perfect and you have all the ‘answers’ and you’ve officially NAILED IT. Off you go! How terribly boring that would be. The thing is, wisdom is not designed to be ‘nailed’. It is beyond nailing. It is non-nail-able . We can sometimes start to ta...

Ruling your own Inner City…(Katha Upanishads week 4) We continue on to week four with the teachings of the Katha Upanishads – essentially in truth, a deep conversation with our highest self.  Up until now, we’ve explored the first two teachings that Nachiketa receives from Yama, the Lord of Death. Questioning the idea of what it is that can ‘die’ within us and what it is that cannot.  We found out that we only ever have two choices in front of us, Preya and Shreya – what isn’t beneficial in the long run, and then what is ultimately better for us. And to further understand how to make these two choices, we learned an analogy of our being – understanding that our body, mind and senses are vessel which we must learn to control to navigate through this life. Which brings Yama to his next point in how to defy Death itself….A challenging statement: “Nachiketa, what most people are actually experiencing of life, is really just a slow process of death”, says Yama. “A...

Taking Back the Reigns... Katha Upanishads Week 3 So this week us Yogis gather around again - first to freshen up our understandings so far, before we continue to deepen into the mysterious teachings of The Katha Upanishads . We begin with a small recap of our story…our “Death chat” with Nachiketa and the Lord of Death himself, Yama. After seeing his father’s false generosity is all for show and image, Nachiketa has challenged his father by asking him, “To whom would you give me! ?” Nachiketa’s father, sick of Nachiketa’s smart-arse comments, bites back; “ I give you to DEATH!” (The modern-day equivalent being somewhere along the lines of, “drop dead you little…*bleep!*”) Hmm, Nachiketa ponders – what would it really mean if I was given to Death? What would happen? Who, or what, would ‘die’? Eager and very brave, Nachiketa sets himself off on a daring expedition to find Yama, king of Death, to explore these very questions. But poor Nachiketa had no idea that he’d be sign...

We only ever have two choices… So,  week 2  of the Katha Upanishads….following on from the opening cliff-hanger of the teachings from the beginning of our dance with Death! Our young and persistent protagonist  Nachiketa  has managed to convince  Yama , the lord of Death, that he is worthy of his third and ultimate wish – to know and to abide in the  unchanging place  within himself that even death itself cannot steal from him.  To know the very secret to immortality. Yogis gather close around our teacher Steve, of course all eager to know more so as to feed the little Nachiketas living within us all. But inevitably, the answer to such a deep and brave question does not come with just a simple reply. This evening, we delve into the first teaching that Yama reveals unto Nachiketa,  the beginning of taking our life back into our own hands. “The first thing Nachiketa, that you must understand”, says Yama, “is that YOU have a CHOICE ...

The Katha Upanishad Omm Yogis, welcome back to the Living Wisdom blog. At the cusp twixt Summer and Autumn, it is time to go out into the fields of wisdom and harvest another crop, which has been lovingly cultivated and tended to by countless generations of Sages and Seekers. This time we must sharpen our scythes for the reaping, as the Grim Guru, Lord Yama (deity of death), dispels the darkness of our ignorance with His uncompromising truth and teachings. We’ll be taking an enlightening journey through the Katha Upanishad over the coming months and this weeks blog is by way of introduction to this ancient fable which stands proud amongst the vedantic canon of India and which carries sapient weight across the ages and indeed across the continents.   So the set up in brief … Nachiketa is our hero in this legendary story, a young boy and the son of a man of some wealth and public standing. His father is known for his charitable giving within the community and is so...

Contemplations from the 23 rd lesson on the Shiva sutras. Sutra 22: SVAMATRANIRMANAMAPADAYATI. You alone are responsible for your own liberation. So we reach a momentous point in this course on The Shiva Sutras; a point where the group journey comes to a sweet, satisfying end only for the resumption of our many solo journeys with a reignition of our ardent hunger for openness, growth and expanded consciousness. The seeds sown by Shiva’s Sutras will live long in each of us and we will all undoubtedly embody their wisdom and practicality in our own distinct ways. But the golden threads of timeless truth which run through each sutra will surely connect us all in some undeniable fellowship of Shiva’s Studious Acolytes, as we continue individually to work with, dance through and refine these invaluable gems which we’ve assimilated, and with which we’re now infused like the marrow in our bones. As we hug our goodbyes, pat backs, swap numbers, reminisce and promise to reas...